February 4, 2015
Buddhist monks create sand painting at Sac State
Photo: http://bit.ly/1AoPd6Y. Caption: Buddhist monks will create a sand painting at Sac State.
Credit: Sierra Friends of Tibet
Ever so slowly, Buddhist monks move grains of sand, employing precise movements
based on a meditative state of mind, to create a sand mandala – a brightly colored
painting that is beautiful and yet impermanent.
Sacramento State’s Asian Studies Program, and Humanities and Religious Studies will
host a group of monks from southern India’s historic Gaden Shartse Monastery from
Feb. 10 through 14 as they create their painting from a palette of colorful sands at the
Library Gallery Annex. Visitors can view the work during gallery hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The monks also will present an evening of traditional chanting, sacred music and a
singing bowl from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, at Solano Hall’s Dancespace.
The program is free; doors open at 6.
Beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, the mandala will be disassembled, and those
present each will receive a little bag of the sand. The remaining sand will be taken to the
American River for dispersal.
“In Buddhist teaching, our life is compared with a single piece of sand in the ocean,” says
Pat Chirapravati, vice director of the Asian Studies Program. “The sand mandala is an
ancient Tibetan art form that creates an intricate diagram of the enlightened mind and
the ideal world.”
Highlights of the five-day schedule:
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10:15 a.m. Feb. 10 – The monks start an opening chant and begin the drawing of
the mandala diagram for five hours.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 11-13 – Work continues on the mandala.
1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 14 – The sand is scraped from the mandala, distributed to visitors
and taken to the river.
The monks are touring the United States to build a new Khangtsen – house or dormitory
– at their monastery, where the center’s 1,500 monks study Buddhist texts, the sutras
and cosmology, and learn to speak Tibetan, Hindi and English.
The Gaden Shartse Monastery is a monastery in exile from Tibet, which is controlled by
China. It was established in 1970 by 85 refugee monks. Sponsors for this event include
Sierra Friends of Tibet and Sac State’s Department of Theatre & Dance.
More information on the monastery is available at www.gadenshartse.net. For
information on the mandala event, contact Chirapravati at [email protected].
For media assistance, call the University’s Public Affairs office at (916) 278-6156. –
Craig Koscho
1-S15-CK